Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Forming an Advocacy Habit: Be an Active, Engaged, Involved Citizen!

Well folks, I bet you didn’t believe you’d make it, but it’s the end of September and the end, for now, of my daily advocacy habit tips. I’m considering extending the program in a more concerted way (I admit it, you all were guinnea pigs), so let me know what you liked (or didn’t) about the daily missives.

I would not blame you at all if recent U.S. and world events overtook your enthusiasm for developing an advocacy habit. That said, I believe in a world of decreasing federal and state budgets combined with increasing distrust of Congress and lobbyists, advocacy, and especially grassroots advocacy, will be more important than ever.

So, your very last advocacy task is to come up with a few things on your own that you know you can commit to on a daily basis to be a better advocate. They might include:

Daily review of the webpages of your elected officials to see what they’re up to

Connect, at least once per day, with another advocate or an elected official through a social networking site like Facebook or Linked In

Check the headlines of the Washington Post and/or the Politics page on the Post website to see the latest that’s going on in Washington, DC (you can do the same for state level publications)

Watch the U.S. House and Senate in session every once in a while on C-Span.org

You can start your daily ritual by checking for any statements on the websites of your relevant elected official noting how they voted on the “bailout” or “financial rescue” bill (depending on your perspective. You can find them at www.house.gov or www.senate.gov. If you think they did the right thing (or the wrong), let them know!